1,900 Mile Wide Thunderstorm Rages On Saturn

[Saul Trabal]

This monster thundercloud has been raging for 9 months, and has lightning 10,000 times more powerful than Earth's:

http://www.examiner.com/x-219-Denver-Weather-Examiner~y2009m9d15-Massive-thunderstorm-1900-miles-across-strikes-Saturn

 

[Stephen Levine]

Thank you for sharing that fascinating link!

 

[Ric Burney]

So that's where our 2009 season went.

 

[cdcollura]

Good day all,

Another really interesting thing is with a thunderstorm so large, I wonder what it's structure is?

Supercell or multicell? Or multi-supercell?

How many "meso's" would it have?

Cannot have tornadoes since there is no "surface" ... But funnel clouds?

Behaves like an elevated storm continuously?

 

[Tyler Burg]

So that's where the future of chasing is going, to other planets. hmm...

 

[Marcus Hicks]

Extreme Space Storm Tours. Sound like a good Idea to me.

 

[Jason Haller]

So that's where the future of chasing is going, to other planets. hmm...

Hear the road network stinks though.

 

[Ian Miller]

Fancy trying to get into position on that storm!

 

[Michael Nicolaou]

I'm of the opinion that a structure shot on this storm would be far superior to an interior view. Given the size of the storm I think one should first target an orbit around/near Titan and then determine a final location. Wonder if Alsup's has a location nearby?

In all seriousness, the magnitude of this storm is probably not really fathomable from our current meteorological understanding.

 

[Jared Thompson]

So that's where the future of chasing is going, to other planets. hmm...

To boldly go where no storm chaser has gone before!!

 

[Michael Nicolaou]

To boldly go where no storm chaser has gone before!!

StormChases Season 257 Episode #4 "The Trouble With Tornadic Tribbles" aka High Lift Index between the sheets"

 

[Brian Stertz]

I'll take Jupiter's red spot over anything in this solar system. One can only imagine the violence when that inflow jet approaches. That to me would be worth the one time shot to see the ultimate storm. F5...pffttttt...try F5,000,000.

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

-285 Fahrenheit????? buuuuuuuuuuuurrrrr!!! I'm just wondering with temps that cold, how there can be any convection at all?

pretty amazing though that 1 of Saturn's years is equal to 29 Earth years, and that storm packs winds of 1000 mph. I can't even begin to fathom.

 

[Dave Kaplow]

To boldly go where no storm chaser has gone before!!

Funny you should say that, because for a long time now I've been thinking about writing a short story or maybe even a novel about storm chasing on a planet other than Earth. This would be pure SF, obviously, but think of the possibilities... Imagine a basically Earth-like planet, but with a GOM or larger sized sea that is heated throughout by submerged volcanism - we'll call it The Sea of Fire - with off-the-chart SSTs producing dewpoints far beyond anything seen on Earth... And of course this Sea of Fire sits just downwind of a Himalaya-sized mountain range, which is also where the planet's jetstream equivalent likes to set up in season, a jet with wind speeds greater than what we see here on Earth... Think of the resulting convective outbreaks! Routine F6s, anyone? With an F7 not completely out of the question? Supersonic winds in the tornadic vortices, earth scoured all the way down to bedrock, destruction and spectacle aplenty, especially when you add in mysterious alien ruins that occasionally get uncovered by these storms...

If I were a better writer with a bit more experience, I would have written this story already. I know similar stuff has been published in the SF genre in the past, Barnes' "Mother of Storms" and Sterling's "Heavy Weather" come to mind, but both of those are set on Earth, albeit a future Earth where the climate has changed for the worse. I like to think I could add something unique to the basic theme, create a character with a true storm chaser's viewpoint, someone whose obsession with supercells takes him all the way to a distant star system in search of the ultimate tornado...

If only I was a more confident writer. But I just might give it a try anyway, just to see if I could do it right.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

So that's where the future of chasing is going, to other planets. hmm...

To boldly go where no storm chaser has gone before!!